It has long been recognized in the prior art the problem of a vermin infestation of marine vessels who migrate from the shore line whether it is a dock, a marina, a beach, or any other means possible with the vermin crawling from land onto the marine vessel wherein the vermin are attracted to food, water, and an enclave for nesting in the hold of the marine vessel. Once the vermin are on the marine vessel numerous problems arise, such as sanitation issues with the food and water supply of the marine vessel and other safety issues wherein the vermin can chew on wiring insulation in the hold of the vessel potentially causing electrical short circuits and possibly fires. Trapping and catching vermin has proved difficult as they are nocturnal animals, and can move very swiftly, and have the ability to squeeze through a very small crevices and openings in the hold of the vessel that have difficult or limited access. Once the vermin have nested in the hold of the vessel it is typically required that the vessel be fumigated and then attempt to remove the dead vermin from the vessel. From the smallest to the largest vessels it is frequently very difficult even after fumigation to remove all of the dead vermin, which in time works to create unsanitary conditions from the decaying vermin carcasses.
As all marine vessels must of necessity be anchored or docked occasionally on either the beach or a dock where there is a mooring line that is strung between the cleats typically on the deck of the vessel and on the dock, or between the cleat on the deck of the vessel and an anchor that is on the shoreline. Even though the vessel is typically surrounded by least 6 ft. laterally of water, the vermin has ready access to the vessel by simply crawling along the mooring line from the dock or shoreline and onto the vessel itself. It has long been recognized in the prior art that the use of a shield barrier placed upon the mooring line to obstruct the vermin's ability to crawl along a mooring line and onto the ship is a solution to this problem.
Typical prior art solutions have included the use of a disc or a plurality of discs that are split in a semi circular fashion to be able to clamp upon the mooring line so that the disk assembly is secured in place upon the mooring line, as the mooring line is typically at an inclined angle with respect to the water level and the shoreline. A number of the prior art devices also include a vermin trap that sometimes has a poisonous substance inside wherein the vermin upon crawling up the mooring line and encountering the barrier are trapped inside the barrier and subsequently killed. U.S. Pat. No. 1,060,993 to Maynard and U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,416 to Roberts disclose this type of vermin guard. Other similar types of vermin guards do not have the vermin trap and poisonous substance, but are of a very similar design in other respects namely U.S. Pat. No. 1,401,540 to Konig, U.S. Pat. No. 1,486,417 to Cheely, U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,652 to Ferland, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,617,378 to Osol all utilize the aspect of only having a physical barrier to stop the vermin from migrating or crawling along the mooring line onto the vessel.
There are some more unique designs of vermin guards for vessels that attempt to overcome specific problems, one of which is when a vermin guard is used on a very large vessel such as a ship, gaining physical access to the mooring line can be difficult as the mooring line can be suspended much higher than a human's height above the water level. It is typically desired that the vermin guard be placed at an appreciable distance from the dock or shoreline, being at least 6 ft. or so to preclude the vermin from easily getting access to the mooring line on the vessel side of the barrier. Thus, some of the vermin guards have been designed to be installed on the mooring line remotely from the vessel deck. This is accomplished through the use of remote ropes or cables to the vermin guard to allow the mooring line clamping mechanism of the vermin guard to be opened and to then be clamped upon the mooring line by an individual on the vessel deck utilizing the attached ropes or cables. Examples would be U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,564 to Salvarezza.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,416 to Haglund et aI., U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,436 to Caldwell, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,525,234 to Mucke of which all disclose the ability to remotely mount and dismount the vermin guard from the mooring line. Salvarezza and Haglund et al., utilize a swinging door closure that clamps on the mooring line by virtue of gravity, Caldwell utilizes a resilient member to clamp on the mooring line, and Mucke utilizes a spring clamp to secure the vermin guard to the mooring line. One other type of vermin guard utilizes only a repellent type substance wrapped around a mooring line absent a physical barrier for the vermin crawling along is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,943 to Simpson.
The majority of the aforementioned prior art has been designed for use with large vessels with the possible exception of Roberts and Simpson who both utilize a poisonous substance to prevent the vermin from crawling along the mooring line to the vessel. As the use of a poisonous substance in conjunction with pleasure craft or recreational boating is not desirable due to the presence of children and various other reasons, there remains a need for vermin guard that is specifically designed for smaller recreational pleasure marine craft that utilizes a physical barrier only without the use of a poisonous substance to prevent vermin from crawling along and mooring line. The vermin guard for smaller craft should also be small, lightweight, easy to install, inexpensive to produce, and desirably float on the water if the vermin guard were inadvertently dropped into the water.